WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Episode 15: To the Northern Continent (2)

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After the gathering of all Great Exorcist Order disciples had been dismissed, Ise stood alone before Kang I-tae.

Without exchanging even the usual greetings, Kang I-tae went straight to the point.

“Do you have a flight spirit artifact?”

“No. I lost it during the battle.”

The White Luan Boat had flown away along with both his legs when he recovered his master’s Golden Core.

The memory of the lost spirit artifact sent Ise’s mood plunging again.

Cheoryang Thunder Gate would pay for their sins in blood, with interest...

“Get on.”

Kang I-tae took a greatsword as tall as a person from his storage pouch. It was a flying sword.

Once Ise stepped onto it with both feet, the sword rose into the air.

Kang I-tae soon used his flight art.

He rose first, and the flying sword carrying Ise followed behind him.

The sword cut across the southeastern ridge of headquarters and flew straight ahead.

They were headed for Black Tortoise Plateau.

A massive cliff rising from the center of the Hangsang Peninsula.

A highland surrounded on all sides by sheer rock walls, with a thick sea of clouds spread beyond them.

It was where Haeil stayed whenever he was not at headquarters, and where Ise had first met him and received his teachings.

The flying sword landed softly on the ground at the cliff’s edge.

Kang I-tae bowed to Haeil, who was already waiting outside, then spoke to Ise.

“Go.”

“Yes, Chief Master. Thank you.”

When Ise bowed his head, Kang I-tae immediately stepped onto the flying sword, turned it around, and vanished toward headquarters.

“You’re here.”

Ise greeted Haeil respectfully, and Haeil answered in a low voice.

“How are you feeling?”

“Not very well.”

Haeil was reclining sideways atop a broad, flat boulder.

As Ise approached the rock, Haeil slowly sat up.

“Gong Wol-a contacted me. She said she intends to withdraw from the Great Exorcist Order. It’s the first time I’ve seen that soft-hearted girl this angry.”

“Yes.”

“Do you resent me too?”

“How could I?”

Ise neither made excuses for the dokkaebi turning their backs on the Great Exorcist Order nor blamed Haeil.

Even if Haeil’s choice had led to Gwisu Temple being abandoned, Haeil had only done what he had to do. He had done nothing wrong to Ise.

Ise was not such a fool that he would turn his arrows on his benefactor.

The only answer was to exact every debt from his enemies with blood.

Cheoryang Thunder Gate, Pill Altar Sect, and the invaders of the Zheng Empire. They were enemies he could never live beneath the same sky with.

“I understand. Still, after all those years together, at least she bothered to say goodbye. Gong Wol-a said that if I need to contact them in the future, I should do it through you.”

Ise only listened in silence.

It seemed Haeil had also received a report that Ise had left his post during the war and headed for Gwisu Temple.

There was nothing to be done about that.

If Haeil wanted to punish him, Ise would accept any punishment.

Yet Haeil’s response was unexpected.

“You did well. Thanks to you, a final thread of connection remains between us and the dokkaebi. I suppose I had lived while forgetting what happened three hundred years ago, and how we came to form an alliance in the first place. What do ascension and the Spirit Transformation Realm matter?”

He laughed bitterly and swept back his hair.

The ceremonial crown that had become his symbol had apparently been lost in the chaos of war. His hair now hung loose around his shoulders.

“I intend to put an end to my wandering life.”

Ise raised his half-lowered head.

That meant Haeil intended to give up on the Two Principles Return-to-Origin Art.

Ise understood his decision completely, but it was difficult for him. The Two Principles Return-to-Origin Art was something he desperately needed as well.

“That is why I called you here.”

“Yes. I’m listening.”

“I will entrust you with the mission of finding the final lower volume.”

Haeil held out two secret manuals.

Ise stared blankly at the secret manual marked Two Principles Return-to-Origin Art. His answer came late because of his surprise.

“Are you telling me to travel to another continent?”

“Yes. I have searched the Western Regions and the Archipelago. That leaves only one place, the Northern Continent. Go to the Frozen Lands and find the remaining lower volume.”

“But I’m not sure it’s possible at my current realm. I heard that one needs to reach at least the Core Formation Realm before even attempting to cross the Heaven-Demon Great Mountains.”

“I’m not sending you that way. Forget the Heaven-Demon Great Mountains. If you flew over the Zheng Empire right now, the people we beat and drove away would be waiting with their eyes wide open to carve you apart.”

“Then how...?”

“I know where an ancient teleportation formation to the Northern Continent is located. I left that place for last because, if necessary, I could send someone else there.”

A teleportation formation.

It was a formation from ancient texts that allowed people to travel between continents.

Ise had heard they had all been lost. He had not expected one to remain.

“Will you do it?”

“Yes. Please tell me how to find it.”

Haeil smiled in satisfaction, apparently pleased by Ise’s direct answer.

But Ise could not smile at the answer that followed.

“I don’t know either. Just search every corner of the Northern Continent as thoroughly as you can.”

“...”

Was he joking?

If so, he was a remarkably unfunny senior.

Ise silently waited for an explanation, but Haeil only looked at him with a serious expression.

He had meant it.

A dizzying feeling came over Ise.

“It’s like looking for one man named Wang across the Zheng Empire...”

“Yes. It will be a long mission.”

That much was certain.

It could take decades, perhaps close to a hundred years. Even if he had been told to search the Eastern Continent, a land he knew well, it would not have been easy.

Now he had to carry out that mission in a foreign land filled with strangers.

“Could it have been destroyed?”

“No. It looks like an ordinary book, but the power of the Lower Realm cannot break or burn it. Wherever it may be lying, it will remain without even a scratch.”

Haeil told Ise to watch, then placed the secret manual Ise was holding on the ground and waved a hand.

A strand of primordial qi shot out with a crack and blasted a deep pit into the plateau’s ground.

Yet when Haeil retrieved the secret manual with telekinesis, not even a speck of dust clung to it.

Ise understood. Come to think of it, it had been created by an ascended immortal of the Spirit Transformation Realm. Of course it would not be easily damaged.

“How did you find the other volumes?”

“The middle volume was hanging on the wall of a noble household as a decoration. Compared to the upper volume, which I found in a rubbish heap in the Western Regions, you could say this one was a rather elegant find.”

Haeil clapped once and added, “Those who possessed it either found its indestructibility auspicious or thought it sinister. The remaining lower volume will likely be no different.”

Ise forgot that he stood before the Order Lord and pulled a terrible face. It was such obvious advice that it was of no help at all.

Still, he quickly composed himself. He intended to extract every possible clue from this conversation.

“How did the Two Principles Return-to-Origin Art become scattered?”

“It was scattered from the start.”

“What?”

It had been scattered from the start?

Why?

“It was the work of the previous Great Exorcist Order Lord. I asked that bastard to leave the art behind for the Heaven-Demon Dual-Meridian Physique that would appear in later generations. Instead, he threw copies of the manual across three continents, said only those capable of finding them should have them, and then ascended.”

“...”

“If I had known I would need it myself, I would have grabbed his trouser leg and forced him to hand it over.”

There was no doubt that the previous Order Lord had been an eccentric as well.

“Great cultivators certainly do love giving assignments.”

Haeil shut his mouth at Ise’s words.

He had realized that he, too, had given his junior three assignments.

Difficult assignments that made a person terribly impatient, at that.

Rather than get angry, Haeil stared at Ise with an expression that said, What a brat.

Ise swiftly changed the subject.

“By the way, what was the Great Exorcist Order Lord’s name? Why does everyone only call him the previous Order Lord...?”

“If a being of the Lower Realm carelessly speaks the true name of an immortal from the Upper Realm, their mind will collapse.”

Ise fell silent at this fact, which he was hearing for the first time.

Still... calling him that bastard was fine, but saying his name was not? What a strange rule.

“Anyway, since you have accepted my mission, I should give you a fitting reward. Because it is a long mission, I will pay you in advance. I give these to you because I trust that you will complete it.”

Haeil took four objects from his storage pouch.

A small porcelain vessel painted with a taiji symbol.

A flight cloud as black as the deepest night.

The Black Ruler, engraved with ancient patterns he could not recognize.

And an elegant box made from diamond.

All four gave off a considerable auspicious aura, but one of them was familiar to Ise.

“That flight cloud...”

“Yes. It is the Foundation Establishment sacred relic Mongryeon used. Gong Wol-a sent it for you.”

“...”

“This is a wondrous artifact that neither breaks nor disappears. Even if it is destroyed, pour cultivation power into it and call its name. It will restore itself and carry its owner once again.”

Ise’s hand trembled faintly.

Its rarity was valuable, of course, but anything that had belonged to Mongryeon would be a treasure to Gwisu Temple as well.

He could not begin to imagine what Gong Wol-a had felt when sending this to him.

“I don’t know if I... should accept this.”

“Gong Wol-a said you are Mongryeon’s true heir. Then who besides you would be qualified to receive it?”

“Senior...”

Seeing the deep emotion on Ise’s face, Haeil gave him a fatherly smile, then cleared his throat.

“Place your hand on it and give it a name.”

Filled with indescribable emotion, Ise slowly reached for his master’s flight cloud.

Dream-Saving Cloud.

He gave it that name with all his heart and spoke it softly.

The flight cloud shone, and Ise felt it connect to his divine sense.

“It’s a rather corny name... but I hope that name will surely fulfill its meaning.”

Haeil next held out the porcelain vessel painted with the taiji symbol.

“This is a Foundation Establishment sacred relic called a Cosmos Pouch. Think of it as a storage pouch that has evolved by one stage. Send your internal qi into it.”

Ise accepted the vessel and poured internal qi into it as Haeil instructed.

The Cosmos Pouch sank into his Dharma-Flower Dantian.

Soon, a taiji symbol appeared around his solar plexus. Ise touched his chest.

It was strange that he could not feel anything at all.

“It can preserve anything you place inside in its original condition, even living things. It is perfect for storing something like a Golden Core. Its capacity is not very large, so use it for what is truly precious, things you must not lose. For your information, you can even put a storage pouch inside it.”

So storage pouches inside storage pouches really were possible.

Haeil had likely given it to him out of consideration.

Ise had already been worrying about how to protect and store his master’s Golden Core.

He placed Mongryeon’s Golden Core, the Soul-Return Body-Entering Art secret manual, the Spiritual Herb Pouch, and the storage pouch containing his valuables inside.

The items he had stored naturally connected to his divine sense and appeared in his mind.

Despite Haeil’s words, the Cosmos Pouch had more room than Ise expected.

“Unless you die, no one can forcibly remove that Cosmos Pouch from you. Only your own will can take it out.”

Footnotes:

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